Click Commerce Completes bTrade Acquisition

By Editorial Staff On Jul 9, 2004

Seeks to strengthen its solution offering in its core markets and extend its reach into new markets

Chicago — July 9, 2004 — Click Commerce Inc., a provider of software and services for business relationship management and compliance automation, today announced it has completed its acquisition of bTrade Inc, which deals with secure communications and trading partner management.

Click Commerce said the move will strengthen its solution offering in its core markets and extend its reach into new markets. bTrade has a customer list in manufacturing, financial services and consumer products verticals including Honda, Stanley Tools, Emerson, BankOne, ABN AMRO, Citibank, Unilever and RCA. The company has 200,000 users, and it offers both hosted and behind-the-firewall solutions.

Click Commerce said bTrade has established itself in the market of product item synchronization, which was established by the Uniform Code Council (UCC) and has been identified as a key reference technology for radio frequency identification (RFID) supply chain enablement.

UCC recently elevated bTrade to Value Added Services (VAS) solution partner status for which only one other solution provider was recognized. Home Depot and a national consumer package goods retailer have selected bTrade as their preferred partner supplier for product item synchronization with their 6,000+ combined suppliers.

"We view the acquisition of bTrade as a natural extension of our mission to deliver collaborative commerce solutions for suppliers and their channel partners," said Michael Ferro, chairman and CEO of Click Commerce. "The current market momentum behind product item synchronization is bringing to light the broader inefficiencies of supplier/retailer relationships. The combination of bTrade's footprint in the retail market with our Web-based application and integration platform enables us to deliver transaction management and process automation solutions to optimize the supplier/retailer supply chain."

A privately held firm, bTrade was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in Irving, Texas. As consideration for the acquisition, Click Commerce is expected to issue approximately 700,000 shares of its common stock and fund the repayment of, or assume, approximately $1.25 million of existing bTrade indebtedness.